Weird_O Bill's 2023, Part (Quarter) Two (2)

   

Free at last! These books were confined to cartons until shelf space could be created for them. Niggling snafus stalled every effort to get the shelves OPEN. One more delay after another. 'Twas too much. Tops blew off boxes. Storage Break! STORAGE BREAK! Those books made their way to those shiny new shelves, ready or not. Free at last. FREE AT LAST! The books take over the library.

                                          

Getting right to it…. Books read:

January 2023
1. Regeneration, Pat Barker. Finished 1/6/23. 
2. Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, Kate Beaton. Finished 1/6/23. 
3. Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus. Finished 1/11/23. 
4. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum. Finished 1/13/23. January 2023 AAC. 
5. Where the Sidewalk Ends, Shel Silverstein. Finished 1/15/23. January 2023 AAC. 
6. Freddy Goes to Florida, Walter R. Brooks. Finished 1/15/23. January 2023 AAC. 
7. Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, Giles Milton. Finished 1/19/23. 
8. The Far Side Gallery 2, Gary Larson. Finished 1/19/23.
9. The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Finished 1/20/23. 
10. What Is Left the Daughter, Howard Norman. Finished 1/23/23. 
11. How to Be Safe, Tom McAllister. Finished 1/26/23. 
12. God's Man: A Novel in Woodcuts, Lynd Ward. Finished 1/26/23. 
13. The Odyssey, Seymour Chwast. Finished 1/27/23. 

February 2023
14. What It's Like to Be a Dog, Gregory Berns. Finished 2/1/23. 
15. How to Fake a Moon Landing, Darryl Cunningham. Finished 2/1/13. 
16. The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams. Finished 2/4/23. 
17. Bewilderment, Richard Powers. Finished 2/7/23. February 2023 AAC. 
18. The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman. Finished 2/9/23. 
19. A Master of Djinn, P. Djeli Clark. Finished 2/24/23. 
20. Help I Am Being Held Prisoner, Donald E. Westlake. Finished 2/28/23. 

March 2023
21. Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich, Norman Ohler, Finished 3/5/23. 
22. Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World, Mark Miodownik. Finished 3/9/23. 
23. When We Cease to Understand the World, Bernard Labatut. Finished 3-11-23. 
24. Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, T. S. Eliot. Illus. Edward Gorey. Finished 3/11/23. March 2023 AAC. 
25. Intercourse, Robert Olen Butler. Finished 3/18/23. 
26. Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver. Finished 3/27/23. 
27. American Cult, Robyn Chapman, ed. Finished 3/30/23. 
28. Severance: Stories, Robert Olen Butler. Finished 3/30/23. 

April 2023
29. The Case of the Baited Hook, Erle Stanley Gardner. Finished 4/4/23. 
30. He Wanted the Moon: The Madness and Medical Genius of Dr. Perry Baird, and His Daughter's Quest to Know Him, Mimi Baird. Finished 4/8/23. 
31. Drug Use for Grown-Ups, Dr. Carl L. Hart. Finished 4/11/23. 
32. Because of Winn-Dixie, Kate DiCamillo. Finished 4/11/23. 
33. Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas, Jim Ottaviani; illus. Maris Wicks. Finished 4/15/23. 
34. Tearing the Silence: On Being German in America, Ursula Hegi. Finished 4/19/23. 
35. The Woman Who Died a Lot, Jasper Fforde. Finished 4/21/23. 
36. All Systems Red, Martha Wells. Finished 4/26/23. 
37. Six Easy Pieces, Walter Mosley. Finished 4/29/23. 

May 2023
38. An Unquiet Mind, Kay Redfield Jamison. Finished 5/4/2023. 
39. Sapiens: A Graphic History Vol. 2: The Pillars of Civilization, Yuval Noah Harari, illustrations by David Vandermeulen and Daniel Casanave. Finished 5/7/23. 
40. Plum Pie, P. G. Wodehouse. Finished 5/15/23. 
41. Number One Is Walking, Steve Martin and Harry Bliss. Finished 5/21/23. 
42. Robert Capa: Photographs, Robert Capa. Finished 5/22/23. 
43. A History of the World in Six Glasses, Tom Standage. Finished 5/29/23. 

June 2023
44. The Eye in the Door, Pat Barker. Finished 6/5/23. 
45. Shopgirl, Steve Martin. Finished 6/6/23. 
46. A Puzzle for Fools, Patrick Quentin. Finished 6/8/23. 
47. Bangkok Tattoo, John Burdett. Finished 6/10/23. 
48. The Unsuspected, Charlotte Armstrong. Finished 6/12/23. 
49. The Chinese Orange Mystery, Ellery Queen. Finished 6/14/23. 
50. Rocket to the Morgue, Anthony Boucher. Finished 6/19/23. 
51. The Bigger They Come, A. A. Fair (a.k.a. Erle Stanley Gardner). Finished 6/20/23. 
52. Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Underrated Organ, Giulia Enders. Finished 6/26/23. 
53. Voices from Chernobyl, Svetlana Alexievich. Finished 6/28/23. 
54. Joe Gould's Teeth, Jill Lepore. Finished 6/29/23. 
55. Mort, Terry Pratchett. Finished 6/30/23. 

July 2023
56. Fen, Bog & Swamp, Annie Proulx. Finished 7/6/23. 
57. In Review: Pictures I've Kept, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Finished 7/7/23. 
58. Fables of Aesop, S. A. Handford, trans. Finished 7/7/23. 
59. Independence Square: Arkady Renko in Ukraine, Martin Cruz Smith. Finished 7/10/23. 
60. The Rubber Band, Rex Stout. Finished 7/11/23. 
61. Foster, Claire Keegan. Finished 7/14/23. 
62. The Netanyahus, Joshua Cohen. Finished 7/18/23. 
63. The Witches, Roald Dahl. Finished 7/20/23. 
64. A Book of Days, Patti Smith. Finished 7/20/23. 
65. The Chickens Are Restless, Gary Larsen. Finished 7/20/23. 
66. Ascending Peculiarity, Edward Gorey. Finished 7/22/23. 
67. The Red Box, Rex Stout. Finished 7/23/23. 
68. The Widening Stain, W. Bolingbroke Johnson. Finished 7/25/23. 

August 2023
69. The Dubliners, James Joyce. Finished 8/2/23. 
70. The Haunted Lady, Mary Roberts Rinehart. Finished 8/8/23. 
71. The Bone Clocks, David Mitchell. Finished 8/11/23. 
72. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride. Finished 8/15/23. 
73. The Far Side Gallery 4, Gary Larson. Finished 8/19/23. 
74. Einstein's Dreams, Alan Lightman. Finished 8/20/23. 
75. The Unquiet Ghost, Adam Hochschild. Finished 8/30/23.  

September 2023
76. Good Talk, Mira Jacob. Finished 9/21/23. Most Excellent.

          

Tally man will soon be here.

Welcome. Welcome one and all.

I know all will exercise the appropriate decorum during their visits here. I know I shall. Bwahahahahaha…

HAppy new one!

Happy new thread Bill!

Happy new thread, Bill!

Hello to you!

Love your topper! :-)

>4 weird_O: - This was very funny so I clicked to copy and paste to send to my brother. But I couldn't get it to spin. It was just a still. How'd you do dat?

Oh, happy new thread, Bill!

Happy new thread, Bill.

Ha, that's a great photo up top!

Happy New Thread, Bill.

I did a bit of skippety-skipping through your last thread, and want to say how impressed I am with the gizmo under the shelving for the heat.

>1 weird_O: Freeing your books from cartons is wonderful. You should get a prize of some sort for that. Excellent photo.

>4 weird_O: Heh.

Happy new one, Bill!

Happy New Thread, Bill. Love the bookshelf topper. What kind of order do you put the books in or is it just getting them shelved. How was the Butler story collection? That one sounds interesting.

>4 weird_O: LOVE IT!!

Happy new one, Bill! Those bookcases up top are mighty purty. Good work, and I see that the books are already making themselves at home in the new real estate. Way to go, you!

The bookcases look fantastic, Bill. Nice work!

>7 figsfromthistle:, >8 quondame:, >9 FAMeulstee:, >10 mdoris:, >11 jessibud2:, >12 PaulCranswick:, >13 ursula:, >14 karenmarie:, >15 drneutron:, >16 msf59:, >17 Crazymamie:, >18 lauralkeet: Thank you, thank you, one and all. The new thread is one thing, and I particularly appreciate the kind words about the bookcase and the photo.

Shelley: The web address of the image is this.
https://64.media.tumblr.com/3dd00e49d92324314912348e710ba7e8/e7f8c64b4aa5e6ca-b9...
Just copy the address, then paste it onto the url line in your browser. Hit return and your browser should take you to the image. (Right now, I don't want to think about the process that would allow you to "copy and paste" the image and retain the animation. I'm sorry, but my brain is struggling with masses of other issues. Maybe someone with more computer knowledge than I have can provide an answer.

Mark: This particular bookcase presents a new challenge, and I'm still puzzling over how to take advantage of its capacity. My desire is to arrange fiction by author, in alphabetical order. I'm still mulling over the possibilities; at some near time, I'll spell out the problem/opportunity and solicit advice and ideas.

Thanks, Bill. That worked. Never mind trying to explain anything tech. My brain does not compute anyhow. :-)

Happy New Thread, Bill! Love the Topper! I'd sure love to see Drumpf in jail, but I am not optimistic..

Glad you like the topper, Deb. Turns out to be something of a misrepresentation. Those Updike books shown marching from carton to shelf have already been displaced once, and they now are heading to a different bookcase altogether. I'm kind of flabbergasted by the extent of My Library's fiction holdings (and that's no fiction!). This consolidation project is definitely a challenge for me.

Happy new thread! Take your time with your organizing. I think I have decided it is always a work in progress.

Heh, I am definitely taking my time, Karen. I've got to stop that foolishness and do my taxes. :-)

But right now, I've got books to read.

Ugh taxes. As always, we don't get our stuff to our accountant in time to NOT have to get an extension. She'll be in touch a day or two before the 15th if we owe money to the feds or the state, otherwise we'll probably get our completed taxes June-Julyish.

Read away!

Finished an interesting read last night. He Wanted the Moon "by" Mimi Baird. I put quotes around by because the text is collaborative, combining extensive passages from a manuscript drafted by Dr. Perry Baird, medical assessments of Dr. Baird by often anonymous psychiatrists, and connective text written by Mimi Baird, Dr. Baird's older daughter.

The Weird Report^TM
             

This history recounts the devastation of mental illness in one person and its rippling harm among family, friends and professional colleagues, and even people he didn't know and who didn't know him. Perry Baird grew up in Texas, graduated with honors from the University of Texas, and quickly moved on to the Harvard Medical School, where he again earned singular honors. He launched a practice in dermatology, married and fathered two daughters, and plunged into chaotic episodes of mania and deep depression. His medical career and his marriage both ended. And Mimi, who had warm memories of him, spent years and years wondering who this wonderful man was and whatever became of him. Her mother would. Not. Talk. About. The. Man.

Ultimately, Mimi was given a manuscript written by her father. She requested and was given Dr. Baird's extensive (and widely scattered) medical records. She collected whatever photos she could find. Doggedly, she assembled his story. Dr. Baird's account vividly describes treatments then current—straitjackets, ice-cold packs, insulin comas. The medical records expose the havoc wrought by a large, powerful, uncontrollable...ah...maniac—breaking apart furniture, threatening attendants with metal bars wrenched from the hospital beds. Exposing the dichotomy between his actions as he remembered them and as his doctors saw them.

Ironically, Dr. Baird had wanted to do medical research, and given a brief opportunity in 1933, he looked for a biochemical component in manic depression. A paper he wrote about his experiment was eventually published in 1944 (when Dr. Baird was in Westborough State Hospital), but it was little noted and quickly forgotten. Yet in Australia, a physician named John Cade independently searched for a biochemical component in manic depression and in 1949 published a paper describing the effectiveness of lithium as treatment. By then, Dr. Baird had crossed the Rubicon. It wasn't until 1970 that lithium was adopted across the U.S.

I'm glad to have read this book. It is heartbreaking, though.

  

Dr. Perry Baird, left
Perry and Gretta at their wedding, center
Mimi, Catherine, and Gretta, right

>26 weird_O: Wow. That sounds intense, Bill. Interesting, but intense.

>26 weird_O: I got that book from ER back in 2015, it was a fascinating read

>27 lauralkeet:, >28 mahsdad: It is pretty intense, Laura, but as Jeff noted, it's fascinating. Early in the 2023 reading cycle, I read Pat Barker's novel Regeneration, set mostly in a mental hospital in Britain during The Great War. Its focus was on depression treatment, more than mania. We still have a long way to go, but think how far we've come in dealing with mental diseases.

Reporting here that I'm mildly besieged by current technology. My HP printer is hallucinating about paper jam. Marmalade. Preserving paper by not feeding it through to be printed upon. A cheap replacement has been shipped.

My health insurer sent me a gift box with stuff I don't really need—a thermometer ("It talks!" sez on the box), resistance bands, some kind of water bottle. One item I thought I could use is an electric toothbrush. The little charger has a handy cord...with a USB plug. There isn't a USB port in my bathroom, where I usually brush my teeth. WTF?

Nearing the end of Drug Use for Grown-Ups by Dr. Carl Hart, a drug researcher at Columbia University. Read the introduction to Ursula Hegi's Tearing the Silence: On Being German in America.

Scones for breakfast. Transporting me briefly to pecan paradise.

Today's coffee is...ah...coffee.

>29 weird_O: I just got the Regeneration trilogy based on your recommendation. Heaven knows when I'll actually read them :) But reading books is a completely different hobby from hording...I mean collecting them, right?

>29 weird_O: My printer, a Canon, recently did the same thing: claimed there was a paper jam and/or no paper, when there wasn't. Sometimes I could just turn it off/on and try again, but that got old quickly. Like you, I sprung for a new printer. I hope yours is everything you've dreamed of LOL.

My Tuesday was productive until about 2:30 p.m., when the power went out—for about the next 10 hours. I had a dental appointment at noon. While waiting for the numbing shots to take effect, the dentist asked about the book I had. Drug Use for Grown-Ups by Dr. Carl L. Hart, a professor and researcher at Columbia University. I happened to be reading about heroin in the waiting room, and could read her a passage or two. (More about that book tomorrow.) Drilling and filling done, I shopped for some birthday books for The Grand Lia. She's been reading Roald Dahl and Calvin and Hobbes, so I got her more.

About two miles from home. I encountered smoke along the road, and when I got to my turnoff, about a mile from the house, there were the firefighters and at least four pumpers. Brush fire. Home about 45 minutes and the kitchen light went off, internet access ended. The fire was under the power lines. Power didn't return until at 1:30 a.m., so I'm guess the fire did significant damage. Didn't get to try the new printer that was delivered whilst I was out.

So I read. Finished Hart's book. Bing. Picked up one of Lia's gifts, Because of Winn-Dixie, and read it through to the end. Bing bing! Then, "headlamp" strapped to my head, I read about 50 pages in my AAC read, Tearing the Silence: Being German in America by Ursula Hegi.

Although I didn't get done what I had planned for the afternoon, the DID get substantial and entertaining/informative reading in. Today's plan is part of yesterday's plan. Uh huh.

I fear Tom Gauld created this strip with me in mind.

Quiet sobbing indeed.

>33 weird_O: Yep, I don't dare try to organize those books, they'll ambush me.

I'll be interested in your thoughts on Drug Use for Grown-Ups. I don't use illicit drugs myself , but here in the Vancouver the possession of a small amount of heroin, cocaine etc are fine. We also have government paid for places to use drugs / shot up . They are manned by RN's mainly , and give a safe and clean place to use drugs. I believe if one wants, counselling and rehab are available for those who like to try that route. I think we have to treat everyone humanely . I feel safer knowing that places like Insite are around. https://www.vch.ca/en/location/insite

Happy new thread, Bill.

>33 weird_O: I love it! And great photo at the top. It makes me want to go and dust my books.

Morning, Bill! Happy Friday! How scary to have that fire so close to home. Glad they eventually restored power - ten hours is a long stretch. Sounds like you made good use of your down time. Carry on, Oh Weird One!

I was just reading a New York Times editorial about the lavish travels of Justice Clarence Thomas on a Texas oligarch's dime. One of Rhode Island's senators, Sheldon Whitehouse, was cited as a critic of the Supreme Court's virtually nonexistent ethics rules.

And I thought, should the senator become president, we'd be hearing and seeing endless references to the Whitehouse White House. I could love that!

The Weird Report^TM

       &
                   Jim Ottoviani            Illustrator Maris Wicks

Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas is a dandy little introduction to the women who penetrated communities of chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans in Africa. Each of the three was recruited for a demanding, long-term observation assignment in a remote area by Dr. Louis Leakey. He didn't put much stock in credentials; rather he focused on powers of observation, patience, and the like.

Goodall was assigned to find, study, and record with pencil on paper everything about chimpanzees. Fossey studied gorillas, and Galdikas studied orangutans.

Goodall was the first to see chimps use "tools" and eat meat. She sat patiently through a drenching thunderstorm to see a family of chimps repeatedly perform a "rain dance", crying and hooting at one another, then racing up a hill and out of sight, only to return and repeat the sequence, over and over. These chimps accepted Goodall's presence and interacted with her up close. The story tracks Goodall's departure and Fossey's arrival. Fossey's tenure was tumultuous, since poachers actively captured and killed gorillas. Likely because she exposed corrupt government officials who took bribes to allow poachers access and because she destroyed every trap she found, she was in peril. Ultimately, she was murdered and her assailant was never found. Galdikas carried the study to the next species (orangutans, remember?) in a different area of Africa, and patiently won the trust of her primate subjects.



         

>33 weird_O: Love it. Perfect.

>33 weird_O: I love it. Perfect.

>39 weird_O: I also remember enjoying Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey. He is a good author. He did a graphic bio on Einstein, that I want to read.

Howdy, Bill. All good here in Chicagoland. Packing for my Texas trip...

A new day. Yay! Same old problems. But my same old fixes aren't fixing.

Close to finishing Tearing the Silence. I'm reading the "Conclusion" but it hasn't yet concluded. When it does, I'll note it here.

Then I'll rip into the final book in Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next. The first six books in the series caused me fun, 'know? Then another episode of Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlin's series. Also the 7th. Then I'll see what appeals to me. In a few minutes, I'll be riding in someone else's automobile across this region's Slate Belt to a high school track meet. Highlight event is the hurtles. So the afternoon consumed watching The Grand Gracie sprint for 10 to 15 seconds. That's it.

>39 weird_O: Primates looks great! I’ll go find a copy (if I’m lucky). I had lost your thread, but now I’m back. Love all of the bookshelf pictures and logistics, and your “weird” sense of humor. I hope to not lose track of you again!

Karen O

Hi Bill.

>26 weird_O: Wow. What an amazing book. Thanks for the The Weird Report.

>29 weird_O: Printers. Ugh. Mine occasionally has phantom paper jams. Nothing I can do but literally unplug it, wait many hours ‘til it does some internal futzing around, then plug it back in after restarting my computer. Mine’s a Brother, mostly faithful.

Double ugh and a one-fingered salute to health insurers, always recognizing the fact that without 'em we'd be homeless after my heart attack in 2021 and knee replacement surgery recently. Mine wants to come into our house to conduct some kind of something… I told ‘em no thanks. They also want to review my meds with me. My doctors review my meds, thank you very much. Intrusive you-know-whats. BTW, an AC wall charger will let you use the USB cord. My coffee is always just coffee… no flavors required.

>32 weird_O: Way too much excitement. Power outages, dentist visits, and brush fires.

>33 weird_O: Sotto voce: location tags. No organizing needed.

>38 weird_O: Thomas and his wife make me ill.

>42 weird_O: SSDD. Same shit, different day. Beware the fun that books provide, and yay for The Grand Gracie sprinting.

>44 karenmarie: I love your methodical post-by-post replies, Karen, and not just here on my thread.

Re: >26 weird_O: I'm seeing two patterns in my reading: mental health and drugs. The former: Regeneration, What It's Like to Be a Dog, American Cult, Blitzed, Demon Copperhead, Bewilderment, When We Cease to Understand the World, of course He Wanted the Moon, and even Tearing the Silence. The latter includes Blitzed, Demon Copperhead, and most recently Drug Use for Grown Ups.

Re: >29 weird_O: One thing about printers is the use of it to expand revenue streams. "Oh, you need to replace the ink cartridges." My sister's HP print would not print, without any explanation. In exasperation, she replaced the cartridges and...uh...it started printing. I liked the printers I had that would keep "printing", even after it was evident the cartridges needed to be replaced.

The new printer I got wouldn't print. "Call this 800 number for help." Seems my computer has malware, which would be spread throughout Canon's corporate system (since the computer is connected wirelessly to the printer). But never fear, we have just the ticket: a $299 annual subscription to security software. Not, get the malware purged, then come back to us. No no. The $60 printer requires you to subscribe to our nifty software package. So the printer will get returned to Amazon, and I'll deal with the infection.

Too, I am familiar with all the intrusive "help" my medicare advantage plan offers.

Re: >33 weird_O: I heard that!

Re: >44 karenmarie: We went the the track meet, froze our buns, and Gracie didn't do well. Her dad tried to talk to her and she wouldn't look at him, just waved him off.

FWIW, the meet was at Pen Argyl High School, in the town where Linda (whisper1) lived growing up. Also Jayne Mansfield's burial site, because she lived there in her youth and always felt at home there.

I gotta do a report on Drug Use for Grown-Ups. The author, Dr. Carl L. Hart, is a professor of psychology at Columbia University. He's researched drug use, drug abuse, and drug addiction, and he is an advocate for the legalization of recreational drugs, He uses recreational drugs himself. "America's drug regime is a monstrous, incoherent mess," he says.

Finished Tearing the Silence by Ursula Hegi for April's AAC. Now I'm reading the final episode in Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series—The Woman Who Died a Lot. When I left off last evening, Thursday had just given the nod to her husband to kill her (okay, really the replicant that was taking her over). Exciting stuff. An Easy Rawlins story is on deck.

Wheeeee!

Thursday Next has survived the 7th book in her series, The Woman Who Died a Lot. I'm not sure the yarn's sprawl of explanations actually tied everything up in the conclusion. What a lot of invention!

Easy Rawlins will be easier. Now starting Six Easy Pieces.

Curious. Opposite the Acknowledgements, which Fforde dated 2012, is a single line: "Thursday Next Returns in TN8: Dark Reading Matter." That was 11 years ago.

I was surprised that the 7th book in the Easy Rawlins series comprises stories, one published with each of the previous six books. Plus one exclusive to this book. Of course, I read the cover copy on Six Easy Pieces with my standard comprehension and jumped to the conclusion that the stories were extracted from the text of those previous books. But no, the stories collected in Six Easy Pieces were published as "bonus" stories, but only with the paperbacks, not the hardcovers. Oh well, since I didn't give any attention whatever to the bonuses, it's kind of like reading a revised text.

Weird, ain't?

Also, whilst picking through the basement "stacks" I discovered a copy of An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison. Cited in the lists at the end of He Wanted the Moon, which I read earlier this month. So I'm reading it now. Plus Easy Rawlins, of course.

It's being a weird day. And so it goes...

>48 weird_O:
Compilation's of short stories that are spin-offs of other novels in a series is getting to be more popular. As are short stories published as novellas. Craig Johnsons does it with the Longmire series and Helene Tursten does it with her Inspector Huss series. In the case of the Longmire series, there are also novellas that featured other characters in the series besides Walt. Johnson publishes a short story that is about Absaroka County every Christmas Eve. These can be purchased on Amazon for Kindle only. They aren't published any other way - so far. I suspect that they will eventually appear in book form.

Helene Tursten also publishes a Christmas mystery in a novella format every year that features characters from her Inspector Huss series. Since T\ursten is Swedish she isn't as trapped by Amazon as authors on this side of the pond and she turned these magazine articles into published hardback books. An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good and its sequel are published after the Swedish magazine short stories are published in Sweden. Fredrik Backmann is another Swedish author who writes short stories for magazines that are then published in the U.S. as novellas.

I got a library copy of All Systems Red, the inaugural volume in the MurderBot series by Martha Wells. My DiL borrowed it from the Lafayette College Library, one of only two or three libraries in the area with any of the series. 50+ pages in. Decent so far. A buy of the series hangs in the balance.

Still reading both an Easy Rawlins and Kay Redfield Jamison's An Unquiet Mind.

Looks gloomy today. I will NOT let it cast me into the Slough of Despond. I think.

Wooo. Finished All Systems Red. Very good. Since I'm the last LTer to read it, I don't need to speak of it further. You all know all about it. Back to the library it goes. I just may purchase the set, which isn't the entire series, but...more than just the first book.

Now back to previously scheduled reading.

>51 weird_O: I think the later stories are in some ways better reads that the first, since every time I re-read All Systems Red I am impatient for the action to get going, but never have that feeling with subsequent novellas or novel.

I'm pleased to hear that, Susan. Makes the series more attractive. Not that I need to acquire more reading material. Heh. :-)

You are not the last person on LT to read Murderbot. I have only read the first two with two more to go. By the time I get them read, the next one in the series will be out.

Hiya, Bill!

You’re off to the wilds of NYC right now, living the high life, for sure.

>49 benitastrnad: There’s also a series of short stories about Jack Reacher, No Middle Name: The Complete Collected Jack Reacher Short Stories that I really liked a lot when I read it in 2018.

>51 weird_O: Not the last LTer. I always will be, since it’s not something that appeals unless my brain short circuits and I start liking AI. SF I can handle in small doses, but AI just doesn’t work for me.

>55 karenmarie: Living on the 7th floor, Karen. Not exactly the high life. But good for a weekend. It rained pretty steadily from the time we arrived until this morning. Son the Elder and I did go to the O'Keeffe exhibit at MoMA. It may have been the first time I've seen an O'Keeffe, a real one. MoMA was mobbed; we were wondering if the rain prompted folks to flock to indoor venues.

Both the plays were very good. Entirely the work of students. Only the seats were torture. :-)

Sometime today we'll head home. I'm ready for that.

>55 karenmarie: Oh dear, Karen, there's nothing AI about Murderbot. It may not be natural but its intelligence isn't the least bit artificial. Wells delivers good action adventure with attitude.

>56 weird_O: Ah, you and Katie put us to shame. We are MOMA members, but haven't gotten to the O'Keeffe yet.

That sounds like a great weekend, Bill. A bit of family, a bit of art, and some good reading to boot.

Howdy, Bill. I am finally back after being mostly gone for 2 weeks. Whew! I hope you are doing good and getting plenty of reading in. I see you are reading Mosley. I just finished The Awkward Black Man, which I really enjoyed. I had not known that he had wrote short fiction.

And yes I did see many Plain Chachalacas. They seemed to be everywhere in the Rio Grande Valley:



-NMP, but I did get some decent shots.

Here it is: May! My Tuesday is structured around a noontime haircut and an afternoon track meet. Hope to find some interesting books at my hometown library's on-going book sale in the forenoon. Hoping the track meet will transpire under sunny skies. The rest of the week will involve book sorting and shelving inside, yard work outside.

Didn't quite finish An Unquiet Mind. Having thus missed the end-of-April _target, I backed off a bit, and started reading Sapiens: A Graphic History, Vol. 2: The Pillars of Civilization. I read vol. 1 last year, and I liked it well enough to continue the series.

I must go now, so as to start the day's events on schedule. Ta-ta.

>60 msf59: - That looks positively prehistoric, a little dinosaur.

Hi Bill :-)

Bin AWOL. But good news! No one cares. I can live with that.

Still trying to wrap up my reading of An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison. I have 20 pages to go. Just this morning, I read a review in the NYTimes of a memoir by a German novelist, who's name I can't remember, of his tumultuous struggles with manic-depression. Pretty sure I don't want to read it. New books on topics I've read about this year continue to be published.

Finished Dr. Jamison's memoir of her mental illness, the same illness that destroyed the life of Dr. Perry Baird, the subject of his daughter's account, He Wanted the Moon. Dr. Jamison owes her continued existence to lithium. Dr. Baird, in the 1930s, initiated lab experiments to determine if some substance was missing in people suffering from manic-depression illness. He died before lithium was adopted in the United States.

As I noted a few days ago, I started reading volume 2 of Sapiens: A Graphic History: The Pillars of Civilization. I'm not too far into this volume, but it's good. Several other books I want to read have fallen into my hands in the last week—a couple from a nearby little free library, a loaner from my son, a few freed from my younger son's closet, from Goodwill, and from my old original hometown library. I got them cataloged and I may post a list tomorrow.

Also. The mower works. Some of the yard is done. Still a bit for me to mow Friday. Kinda like to deliver recyclables to Waste Management tomorrow too.

Sleep well, my friends.

I want to post something here, but I have to mow. Sun's out in the blue sky.

Yeah, that's my Friday afternoon task...

I mowed more today, Jim. How'd you do?



Here are most of the books added to my collection in April and early May. These were rescued from a nearby Little Free Library, from the Son the Younger's closet, from a Goodwill store, and from a library book sale.

April 7, 2023: Amazon

56. Sapiens: A Graphic History, volume two: The Pillars of Civilization, Yuval Noah Harari. (hc) (new)

April 24, 2023: Wanamaker's Little Free Library, Wanamaker

57. The Various Haunts of Men, Susan Hill. (pbk)
58. Wilder Times: The Life of Billy Wilder, Kevin Lally. (hc)

May 1, 2023: Goodwill Tilghman

59. A Patchwork Planet, Anne Tyler (hc)
60. There Will Be Time, Poal Anderson (hc)
61. Skyscrapers: A History of the World's Most Extraordinary Buildings, Judith Dupre (hc, oversize)
62. Country Girl: A Memoir, Edna O'Brien (pbk)
63. Trotsky: A Biography, Robert Service (pbk)
64. The Unquiet Ghost: Russians Remember Stalin, Adam Hochschild (pbk)
65. The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray, Robert Schnakenberg (pbk)

May 2, 2023: Wyomissing Public Library on-going bag sale

66. McGuffey's Eclectic Readers: Primer Through the Sixth (hc, boxed set)
67. Howells: Novels 1875–1886 specifically: A Foregone Conclusion; A Modern Instance; Indian Summer; The Rise of Silas Latham (hc, LoA)
68. S.: A Novel, John Updike (hc)
69. The Blackwater Lightship, Colm Toibin (hc)
70. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (hc)
71. Making It Up, Penelope Lively (hc)
72. In the Night Room, Peter Straub (hc)
73. How to Be Both, Ali Smith (hc)
74. Basket Case, Carl Hiaasen (hc) upgrade!
75. They Whisper, Robert Olen Butler (hc)
76. Drop City, T. C. Boyle (hc)
77. City on Fire, Don Winslow (hc)
78. The Fall, Albert Camus (mmp)
79. Fables of Aesop, S. A. Handford, trans. (mmp)
80. In the Hurricane's Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown, Nathaniel Philbrick (pbk)
81. Scribbling a Cat: Travels with an African Soldier, Alexandra Fuller (pbk)
82. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert M. Pirsig (pbk) Dupe, but potential upgrade
83. A Season on the Appalachian Trail, Lynn Setzer (pbk)

May 3, 2023: Ned's Closet

84. Bart Simpson's Guide to Life, Matt Groening (hc)
85. Trust No One: The Official Third Season Guide to The X Files, ? (pbk)
86. The Unofficial X-Files Companion, N. E, Genge (pbk)
87. The Complete Film Dictionary, Ira Konigsberg (pbk)
88. The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh of Homer, multiple editors (pbk)
89. Monkey Business: The Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers, Simon Louvish (pbk)
90. Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood, Cari Beauchamp (pbk)
91. The Filmmaker's Handbook, Edward Pincus and Steven Ascher (pbk)
92. Hitchcock and Selznick, Leonard J. Leff (pbk)
93. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Frank Miller with Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley (pbk)
94. Hitchcock: The Murderous Gaze, William Rothman (pbk)
95. Film Art: An Introduction fourth edition, David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson (pbk)

I mowed the grass yesterday as well!

>67 weird_O: What a great number of books you added to your library. My local library is having a spring sale next week. I can't wait!

Happy weekending.

Oooooo. I finished a graphic history. It was most excellent. Better even than the first volume. Sapiens: a Graphic History Vol. 2: The Pillars of Civilization by Yuval Noah Harari, illustrations by David Vandermeulen and Daniel Casanave.

>67 weird_O: Friday mowing, Saturday power washing the front porch and getting all the porch furniture set up, Sunday was recovering from pollen overexposure... 😀

>70 weird_O: You got me with a BB for Sapiens. I’ve got the first volume requested, though, since it’s been on my to-be-read since you put it there! Thanks for the reminder!

Have a great week!

Karen O

>71 drneutron: Congrats, Jim. You were more productive than I. I did do mowing, but Saturday I spent a couple hours in the sun watching field hockey. Sunglasses but no sunscreen and no hat. Red face. But it was a beautiful day—blue blue sky with cotton-ball clouds. Watched well over a dozen single-engine aeroplanes gliding into a turf aerodrome a half-mile from the athletic fields.

>72 klobrien2: I read the first volume of Sapiens last year. Finished volume two yesterday. Liked the second more than the first. I want to see what the others in the series cover.

I ran across a small album of bird photos. The ornithological world is rife with unusual, seldom actually seem species. I dunno nothing about birds, but these seemed to be worth sharing.

      Lesser Green Broadbill 

 Patoo

    Frogmouth 

 Shoebill

Ok, ok. These birds are actually escaped projects from Jim Henson's studio. (The two frogmouths are
the avian Statler and Waldorf.

>74 weird_O: Wow! Freaky but cool. I was hoping to see a Patoo, while we were in Costa Rica. Actually, the day I hired a bird guide, we did hear one.

How do you like an An Unquiet Mind? My sister, who deals with depression and is bipolar, read this book and found it quite helpful. I hope you can bookhorn in Drop City at some point. Boy, I loved that one.

>75 msf59: Oh Drop City! Loved it too.

Uh oh. Drop City. Yesterday afternoon, Mark's enthusiasm for it was auspicious. I'd decided to scrap a Poul Anderson time-travel story; to me it was just blah. Then I heard a faint tweeting. "Drop city. Drop city." So I read a sampling of reviews, then the first chapter. Didn't compel me to turn the page and start chapter two. But this morning, there's more peeping. "I loved it too. I loved it too."

Maybe...

>75 msf59: I did like An Unquiet Mind, Mark. Dr. Jamison has had a tumultuous life and has withstood it remarkably well. My sympathy to your sister.

>75 msf59: >76 ffortsa: >77 weird_O: Drop City, oh my. I did set it aside and I am now reading a collection of Wodehouse stories published as Plum Pie. I'm so inconstant that I may get back to it (Drop City), and even to that Poul Anderson time-traveler.

----------------------
I've been whacked by a springtime cold that's brought things to a halt. Sore throat, stuffy, cough, achy eyes. So nothin' happening with me.

>78 weird_O: Your cold sounds like my allergies. This hasn't been my traditional season, but it happened last year as well. I wake up sounding a little like Lauren Bacall (according to a former admirer), with all the other symptoms as well. I hope we both feel better soon.

            

The Grand Claire graduated. I was there. I witnessed it. Another graduation this coming Saturday, followed by a third on June 3.

Hiya, Bill!

>56 weird_O: O’Keefe’s a treat in person. Glad you got to see her art. Yay for the plays, boo hiss for the seats.

>57 quondame: Hmm. I’m confused, Susan. Amazon doesn’t say AI, but here’s what’s on the Work page here on LT for All Systems Red:



>67 weird_O: and >68 weird_O: Excellent photo of greenery, sky, and books. Nice, the McGuffey’s, among other acquisitions.

>74 weird_O: Love’em.

>80 weird_O: Congrats to her and yay to you for witnessing it.

>80 weird_O: - Big congrats to you both - for the event and for, apparently, surviving it! ;-)

>81 karenmarie: Murderbot has an intelligence based on both human tissue and cybernetic tech but isn't AI as in a programmed intelligence but a sort of organic/tech structured mind which was externally restricted. Free of those restrictions Murderbot is a personality well worth spending time with.

It's clear to me that I must read more stories of Murderbot. While I have an enormous cache of unread books, I'm stuck in neutral as far as plucking my next read from the possibilities. I could just spring for the set.

I've been sampling books, having completed a Wodehouse collection, Plum Pie. Read the first chapter in Lynn Nicholas' The Rape of Europa, several in Shopgirl by Steve Martin (which Katie said she'd recently read and enjoyed), got Amor Towles' A Gentleman in Moscow (universally acclaimed) off the shelf but then didn't crack the cover, sipped from A History of the World in 6 Glasses. Oh, I got a lot more, a lot more. But focus is hard to achieve just now. I'll make it happen. I think. If I have to.

Heading out shortly for the second of granddaughter graduations, this one in the Bronx. It's starting at the crack of dawn Saturday. First a long subway ride, then a long walk, then a lot lot lot of waiting around. Rain's a possibility, and Fordham has no venue sufficiently spacious to accommodate all who wish to attend. I'm really looking forward to the experience.

I whined about forgetting to hit the opening day of the Bethlehem Public Library's on Wednesday, but I did drop by the thrift store that's a couple of storefronts from the grocery emporium. Found a copy of Miriam Toews' Women Talking, Steve and Harry's Number One Is Walking, another Alexandra Fuller book, this one a novel titled Quiet Until the Thaw, and the third installment of the Christopher Marlowe Cobb series, written by Robert Olen Butler.

But I must go now. My drivers are frowning and tapping their feet.

Book Acquisitions

What better way to return to LT than with some book photos. On May 17, eschewing the Famous Bethlehem Public Library Book Sale (because, yes, I forgot it), I ambled the length of a thrift store book aisle and rescued the books shown below. I've already digested *urp* Steve and Harry's book. Lovely snack with a cuppa.

        

Can't make out the titles? Here.

The Haunted Bookshop, Christopher Morley
Quiet Until the Thaw: A Novel, Alexandra Fuller
Women Talking, Miriam Toews
Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging, Sebastian Junger
Landmarks, Robert Macfarlane
The Empire of Night, Robert Olen Butler
Number One Is Walking, Steven Martin and Harry Bliss

A couple of days later, May 19, I took advantage of being in NYC and being in need of a particular book, I entered The Strand Bookstore—18 miles of books(!!)—and, yes, I got a copy of that particular book. Since I was there, I consulted The Want List™ to guide me in a few books for me. (The particular book is a birthday gift.)

The photo:  

Can't make out the titles? Here.

Bangkok Tattoo, John Burdett
The Eye in the Door, Pat Barker
Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Underrated Organ, Giulia Enders
At Swim-Two-Birds, Flann O'Brien
Robert Capa: Photographs, Robert Capa

A successful, though expensive, visit.

I forgot. *sad trombone*

Tuesday I acquired a single volume from a nearby little free library, in exchange for eight (or so) previously rescued books. Released into the wild.

Book I re-rescued: The Most of George Burns, a collection of four previously published books.

Silence is nice. Really.

I'm sporadically reading A History of the World in 6 Glasses. I don't know why it surprised me to read about how significant the creation of rum was. But it did. This is, I guess, the sort of knowledge that book banners and history deniers don't want acknowledged. Alcohol used to control the masses. A regular dole kept Native Americans tractable, sufficed the lugs who'd do the dirty-work of rounding up human chattel, staved off mutinies of sailors. I don't know why I didn't know (but I did not) that New England was a leader in rum production.

I leave you (to go ride around on my lawn tractor) with this observation, made by a guy whose writings remain unread by me:

        

Hi Bill, I just popped over here to see if you were able to finish the jobs you needed to do before your holiday weekend get-together. I hope so! Enjoy your time with family.

>88 weird_O: I feel like Bukowski is better in pithy quotes than when you actually read his books, so you're on the right track. :)

Happy Saturday, Bill. Love the photo up there of you and Claire. I hope you had a good time in NYC. I see you got some good books. I really liked Women Talking. Hope you got that lawn done.

Have a good holiday weekend, my friend.

I saw that you finished reading World in 6 Glasses. I enjoyed that book when I read it. I laughed when I read your statement about it being banned in Florida. So true. Standage has some other books I would like to read. Don't know when I will get time to read them, but I have them on the gigantic TBR list.

I thought Standage's book, The Victorian Internet was much more interesting than the World in 6 Glasses. I read it and it was ok, but I think I only drink 2 of the *6 glasses* mentioned so it didn't speak to me as much. But I read the Victorian Internet first and thought it was really good (and funny, too).

Happy Friday, Bill. We are going up to WI for a couple of days to visit friends. I will also start A Separate Peace, which I have never read. Have you?

Have a great weekend, my friend.

>94 msf59: This weekend DOES promise great things, Mark. The final graduation of the cycle tomorrow, coupled with the 21st birthday of the twin grands, who have already graduated from their undergraduate colleges. My son joked last night that he can send Claire to the beer distributor tomorrow to stock up. She'll be 21! Legal drinking age in Pennsylvania.

Top that in Wisconsin, Mark. If you can.

I have read A Separate Peace. I'm still chugging through The Eye in the Door, and Pat Barker still wows me with her take on WWI. Occasional brain cleansing by reading a few chapters in Steven Martin's Shopgirl; he has a sharp eye and brings out the small gestures and details that enrich a relatively simple story.

--------------------------

I am forever distracted, and thus neglect friends who visit. For example:

>89 lauralkeet: I made some spur-of-the-moment adjustments, Laura, that allowed those jobs to be "finished." A week later, Bingo! I don't even remember what those jobs were; I did them so fantastically.

>90 ursula: Ahhh, Bukowsky. I really DO have two or three of his books (unread, of course). I will accept your advice judgment that the occasional pithy quote is sufficient.

>91 msf59: Thanks, Mark. I neglected you a week ago, but you nevertheless dropped by this morning. The weekend in NYC was a mixed bag. I got several elusive titles from The Want List™. I fell and broke my glasses. It rained cats and dogs during the key moments of the graduation ceremonies. BUT Stevie Wonder's acceptance of an honorary degree and his commencement address in words and music was...ah...wonderful. Helen's got her degree! Oh, the lawn and I have reached an accommodation. (I'll explain in due time.)

>92 benitastrnad: Hat tip, Benita. I did notice a list of previous books Standage wrote. Oh my. So many interesting books; so little time.

>93 jessibud2: Ditto.

Hi Bill, don't worry, I didn't feel neglected. I'm pleased to see your appreciation for Pat Barker's trilogy. It's a good 'un.

YES!!!

        

Gracie made it. Completing the trifecta. And graduating on her twin sisters' birthday.

          

What A Day.

>97 weird_O: Congratulations to the new grad! Looking very 60s!

>97 weird_O: Hurray!! Great photos of a very attractive threesome. : ) Congrats to them and to you.

>98 quondame: A 60s look? If you refer to the lei Gracie is wearing, every member of the graduating class got one. One of the class members was born in Hawaii and provided a lei for each grad. Works when the class has but 67 members. :-)

>99 Berly: Thanks, Kim. I mentioned in the past that Gracie is going to Smith College. Two of her classmates, one of whom has been a close friend since pre-school days, are going to Amherst. !!!

--------------------

I finished The Eye in the Door last night. It's the second book in Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy and it is mighty good. I have the third book, The Ghost Road, in hand and I will read it soon. That book won Barker the Booker Prize.

I'm tackling clutter and not-at-all benign dust bunnies throughout the house. Shooowee!

>100 weird_O: I remember that Gracie was a Smithie. I took a few classes over there. Happy her friends are going to Amherst as well!! Good luck chasing the dust bunnies -- they don't behave well. ; )

>101 Berly: - Good luck chasing the dust bunnies -- they don't behave well. ; And they multiply! Must be a genetic thing...

>100 weird_O: Nope, not the lei at all. Gracie's dress looks like dresses I purchased 1967-1969. I mostly went for flower patterns, but did have one white.

>102 jessibud2: I'm afraid them dbunnies will bite my toes. They are not benign. :-)

>103 quondame: Oohhh, of course.

------------------

Went to the general store for milk (and a brownie). As always, I checked the Little Free Library (even though I neglected to take contributions along; I'll make it up, honest). Bing! Found five almost new books in Otto Penzler's "American Mystery Classics" collection. Reprints of 1930s and 40s mysteries, stuff that's been out of print for decades. It happens that each of the five is by a different author. Just the sorts of potboilers I need.

      

But first, I must finish Shopgirl. Ha! Maybe before lights out...

Yes! The bedside lamp is stilled lighted. And Mr. Martin's lovely novella is completed.

Now entering the pages of A Puzzle for Fools by Patrick Quentin.

>104 weird_O: Great find at your Little Free Library! I’ll have to look up that series—sounds so good!

Karen O

Stayed up late to polish off A Puzzle for Fools. For me, this mid-1930s mystery started slowly, but ended in a rush.

>106 klobrien2: A good place to start, Karen, is the WikiPedia entry about Otto Penzler.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Penzler

Unbeknownst to me, Penzler owns NYC's The Mysterious Bookstore.

>107 weird_O: Thanks, weird_O! I found one of the “Otto Penzler Presents” and one of his annual “Best of” collections at my library. I’ll make a start.

Had you heard of this guy before? I hadn’t. You learn something every day, right?!

Karen O

>108 klobrien2: You learn something every day, right?! Boy, ain't that the troot. (I learned just a few hours ago of The Indictment.)

I'd heard of The Mysterious Bookstore, but the Otto Penzler name wasn't familiar until I scored a copy of an Erle Stanley Gardner book Penzler republished. Now I've got more of his stuff. He sure does have a lot energy for an 80-year-old.

I started Bangkok Tattoo, the second of John Burdett's stories featuring Royal Thai Police detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep. I do have a lot of savory treats on the menu beyond that.

Finished Bangkok Tattoo Saturday. Picked up The Unsuspected by Charlotte Armstrong, which is one of the Otto Penzler-republished mysteries I got last week for free from the LFL. (I do need to drop off some contributions tomorrow.) I was a little put off by the first couple of chapters. The dialogue and the setting seemed kind of dated. I did put it down and eyed the stack of other recent acquisitions. Did this 'n' that. But I went back to the book, and I'm half way through it. See if I can plow on through it.

I noted Saturday that James McBride's new novel is to be published on August 8. It's the book that McBride was developing when he spent a day getting background on Pottstown, Pa from my brother. I'll see Brother Tom later this week and badger him.

Been away from LT, it seems, distracted by distractions. I am working up to the next phase of shelving; perhaps next week I'll try somethin'. I was restrained yesterday and didn't visit my original hometown library, hoping for a bagful of interesting books. I was in the town, but I fled as soon as my haircut was done.

I'm happy to report that we had rain on Monday and again this morning.

>104 weird_O: Oooh... nice haul. I enjoyed Penzler's In Pursuit of Spenser a few years back. (As an editor, though, I thought he should have caught and prevented a few egregious errors in the text of some of those essays.) He knows a classic when he sees it.

>80 weird_O: Great fun pic. Congrats to the grad!

>97 weird_O: Nice, also congrats!

You were busy attending all those graduations. Hope the celebratory dinners were fantastic!

>104 weird_O: I love seeing what treasures are in the little free libraries. I found one on vacation close to where I am staying but alas nothing interesting in it.

Sweet Thursday, Bill. Hooray for the rain. Boo to the distractions. My books are treating me well. American Pastoral is off to a good start and I am on the tail-end of Boone: A Biography, which has been terrific. I highly recommend that one.

Happy father's day, Bill.

Happy Father’s Day, granddaddy Bill.

Hey! Hey hey. It is Tuesday. I'm already up, caffeinated, breakfasted. Oh, ye gods.

Feeling pretty good about the reading I've been doing for the last week or ten days. I scored five quite excellent mysteries at a Little Free Library exactly 14 days ago. I've read four already and expect to pick up the fifth later this week. Yesterday I started Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Underrated Organ, which was on The WANT! List™ literally for years. I bought it last month in NYC, a revised edition. It's informative and entertaining. On deck is an Erle Stanley Gardner mystery, published under one of Gardner's pen names, A. A. Fair. Last of the free mysteries.

Over the weekend, my sister and I made an effort to join the Leinbach Tricentennial Reunion. A fizzle, sorry to say. Marty braved a drive from Lexington, Va., on I81, thence to I78 to my house. Traffic was awful the entire way, she said. The reunion activities held little interest, so we bailed and visited our brother, drove on some back roads hither and yon, and reminisced. Her drive home on Sunday was trouble free. Yay! And I spent some time poolside with Son the Elder (and family) and his Father-in-Law (and wife). It was good. Really.

Now I must make a list. Then check off the items.

How was your weekend? Wha'cha reading?

I just finished reading an academic tome that, even though it was slow reading, was worth the time. Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory by Claudio Saunt. This was an academic book that uses the new methods of data analysis. The author looked at numbers ranging from census records to Congressional voting records, to public business filings of banks in New York City to track the wealth stolen from Native Americans, primarily in the Southeastern U.S. His conclusions were that the Indian expulsion laws were passed and enacted because of pressure from Southern politicians and wealthy land owners so that they could acquire more cheap land and populate it with slave labor camps. (His name for what we call plantations.) It was a very different interpretation of the Trail of Tears and why it happened.

Now I am reading Elephant's Journey by Jose Saramago.

>112 laytonwoman3rd: Yes, it was a nice haul, Linda, and I've read 'em all already. Finished the last of the five within the hour. I read quite a few of Parker's Spenser novels, enough that my enthusiasm slowly dissipated. But I think that Penzler appreciation could be interesting.

>113 figsfromthistle: Thanks, Anita. Each graduation had multiple stories: rain, bagpipes and drums, subway and elevated and bus rides, broken glasses (mine). And oh yes! several excellent celebratory dinners.

The local LFL has surprised me with its inventory over a year's time. I've found quite a few good books in it, and I like to think I've contributed good titles

>114 msf59: Dan'l Boone was born close by, in eastern Berks County. It's a lovely state-run park, great for picnics and such, though I doubt it's an accurate reflection of how it was when he lived there. I should look for the bio.

>115 PaulCranswick:, >116 jnwelch: Thanks for the good wishes. My Father's Day was relaxing. Hope yours was relaxing too.

>118 benitastrnad: Confirming what we've believed, Benita. With new approaches to the confirmation.

>117 weird_O: Hi Bill - just encountered your thread and saw your reference to your sister living in Lexington, VA; I don’t see that particular town mentioned often, but my brother and my dad both went to W&L, so I’ve spent some time there. I-81 is often dreadful - I’m glad she made it home safely. 🙂

"I-81 is often dreadful" When is it not? We have traveled from PA to VA many many times, and we call it "the road that shall not be named" around here.

>120 PlatinumWarlock: >121 laytonwoman3rd: Marty had no trouble getting home. Apparently, Linda, I81 isn't bad on a Sunday morning. Mark that down. Heh.

Good on your dad and bro, Lavinia. You are a long way from the Shenandoah Valley. My maternal grandmother was born and raised in Troutville (between Lexington and Roanoke). Are you from that area?

I took a day's pause in digesting Gut to rip through The Bigger They Come, written by Erle Stanley Gardner and published using one of his pen names, A. A. Fair. Now up to 51 for the year. I'm back to Gut now, about halfway through. It's very different from Mary Roach's Gulp, which takes the same route but is not nearly as authoritative. Gut's author, Giulia Enders, is a doctor of internal medicine and gastroenterology in Germany and is focused on explaining how this huge organ works. (Translated by David Shaw.) Very readable, but without the entertainment of Elvis's digestive woes and similar lore.

Not entirely sure what read will follow. So much I have to choose from. :-) Not at all a horrible situation.

Two books I am looking forward to getting this summer.



This one will be released on August 8.

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe.

The Pottstown location of the story is significant to me because McBride solicited an introduction to the town from my brother, who has lived there for 50+ years.

A second book I'm looking forward to reading is Independence Square, the tenth volume in Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko series. I'm drawn to Smith 'cause he was born and spent his early years in Berks County, Pa. I've read at least four Renko books, with a couple of others in amongst that TBR chaos. This one has a twist:

It’s June 2021, and Arkady knows that Russia is preparing to invade and subsequently annex Ukraine as it did Crimea in 2014. He is, however, preoccupied with other grievances. His longtime lover, Tatiana Petrovna, has deserted him for her work as an investigative reporter. His corrupt boss has relegated him to a desk job. And he is having trouble with his dexterity and balance. A visit to his doctor reveals that these are symptoms for Parkinson’s Disease.

This is an ingenious autobiographical conceit, as Martin Cruz Smith has Parkinson’s, and is able through Arkady to movingly describe his own experience with the disease. Parkinson’s hasn’t stopped Smith from his work, and neither does it stop Arkady. Rather than dwell on his diagnosis, he throws himself into another case.

           

>122 weird_O: No, I grew up in Tampa, FL but all of us happened to go to college in VA - dad and bro at W&L, mom at Randolph-Macon Women's College (now Randolph College) and I at UVA. Moved to Seattle in my late 20s because I hate the heat and cockroaches of FL. Ugh. If I had a good excuse (which I don't), I'd spend spring and fall in VA because it's so gorgeous that time of year!

>124 weird_O:
I am looking forward to the James McBride book as well. I like his work, and have had Color of Water on my home office desk for almost a year. I figure that if I put it our where I can see it that I will be more likely to read it. However, I keep shoving it aside to get to other books.

I am now at a Starbucks outside of St. Louis using their free WiFi and listening to Anthony Horowitz's metafiction mystery series Hawthorne & Horowitz while driving. I am going to stop and visit an Illinois State Park this afternoon. For 30 years I have been driving by Cave-in-Rock State Park and this time I am going to stop and see it.

My younger son's family gave me Voices from Chernobyl for Father's Day, and I am ready to listen to those voices. A few days ago, I read of Ukrainian fears that the Russians will blow up a nuclear power plant. Seems like a good time to read about Chernobyl, which is, of course, in the Ukraine.

Getting close to the end of Gut. Not as fast-paced as a mystery yarn, but much more informative.

-----------------------
>125 PlatinumWarlock: I've been to Florida once in my life; enough for me. Virginia is definitely more appealing.

>126 benitastrnad: I'm suddenly moved to make my second cuppa, Benita. Peets it will be. I'll urge you to tackle The Color of Water. That was the first McBride I read, followed by Miracle at St. Anna, a novel. This is reminding me that I have three other McBride novels, still unread. (I placed an order for the forthcoming title.)

Happy Saturday, Bill. Thanks for the heads-up on The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. I am a big fan of McBride. The Color of Water is one of my very favorite memoirs.

I can't believe the Arkady Renko series is still going. It must be over 40 years since it started, right? I remember really loving the first 3 or 4.

Darn you, Mark! Book doesn't officially drop until August, and already you have an ARC of it. Double-dog darn!

Gorky Park was published in 1981. So yeppy yep, 42 years.

Finished Gut yesterday. Excellent book. Excellent.

Now reading Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich, a Nobelist.

>130 weird_O: Those both sound like excellent reads, Bill - thanks for mentioning them!

>128 msf59: Actually, Mark, it isn't all that remarkable for a series to run 40 or more years. Consider Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series, Agatha Christie's Poirot and Marple stories, Perry Mason, Ellery Queen, even Rabbit Angstrom. How about P. D. Wodehouse and his several series? Bertie and Wooster. Blanding's Castle. Some authors get a series going, but fail to live long enough to hit 40 years. Just how these things go. Huh. I never really thought about it.

>131 PlatinumWarlock: You are welcome, Lavinia.

>128 msf59: Actually, Mark, it isn't all that remarkable for a series to run 40 or more years. Consider Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series, Agatha Christie's Poirot and Marple stories, Perry Mason, Ellery Queen, even Rabbit Angstrom. How about P. D. Wodehouse and his several series? Bertie and Wooster. Blanding's Castle. Some authors get a series going, but fail to live long enough to hit 40 years. Just how these things go. Huh. I never really thought about it.

>131 PlatinumWarlock: You are welcome, Lavinia.

Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich. I've read it. Excellent.

Joe Gould's Teeth. Jill Lepore. A Harvard history professor investigates "the long-lost, longest book ever written, a century-old manuscript called The Oral History of Our Time. I started reading it last night. Far from long, Lepore's book runs 151 pages, plus about 75 pages of notes and index. Her research stemmed from two long pieces by Joseph Mitchell, published in The New Yorker, one in 1942, the second in 1964. Both of those stories are included in Mitchell's Up in the Old Hotel. I have a copy; I might read it.

But first, Joe Gould's Teeth.

Got one more book read. Finished it at 11 p.m. on June 30. Mort. The first Terry Pratchett book I've read. Making 55 books in six months. I'm quite satisfied with that. It suggested to me that I'll get about 100 books for the year.

World travelers are back in the USA. I'm going to say they had a swell time in Greece.

I journeyed to Kutztown, bought three new books at the Firefly Bookstore, a few things to eat.

Started reading Fen, Bog & Swamp: A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate Crisis by Annie Proulx. Because I wanted to (and because Eisenhower's 1950s writing style is dull). Then I got kinda bogged down digesting to argot of science; marked my place; went back to Ike.

>137 weird_O: Oh, dear...that Proulx just arrived in my mail the other day. Getting bogged down doesn't sound promising, even when that's sort of the subject...

Your milage will vary, Linda. My drift from peatlands to WWII came late in the evening, and I switched back to science after the Nazis capitulated. And then I capitulated and turned off the light. I don't expect to ditch Proulx's book.

>139 weird_O: I'm glad you haven't ditched Proulx's book, Bill. It's the first I've heard of it but the topic is of interest. I'll wait to see what you ultimately think of it.

Oh no, Laura. Wouldn't ditch Proulx; she's the antidote to Eisenhower's plodding prose. She's also got information we need.

Now Ike, on the other hand, casts his personal history in careful, cautious sentences. I've read here and there of his volcanic temper, of his alleged relationship with Kay Summersby. He hasn't given anything away so far. Reading it yesterday, I was reminded of Plain Speaking, Merle Miller's interviews with Harry Truman. Got it off the shelf and dipped in here and there. Oh yes, this is what I want. I think a re-read is looming.

Nice work with the reading at 55 books already, Bill. Happy 4 th of July!

>135 weird_O: I look a lot like that image at times, though a female version.

I've made great progress through Fen, Bog & Swamp, and I expect to finish it today. It's an excellent book. Get a copy and read it!

         

>143 weird_O: Will do, Bill. Peat has been a topic of discussion chez nous, because the UK has banned it for horticultural use but there seems to be no such movement in North America. I'm keen to learn more.

And so, I did finish Fen, Bog & Swamp.

>144 lauralkeet: I doubt you'll learn more about peat as a soil amendment from this book, Laura. Proulx's focus is man's destruction of peatland and wetland. Without a clue about their fit in the functioning of our environment, humans did their damndest to eradicate them. That's what the book is about.

>143 weird_O: I have put it on my library wishlist, Bill, thanks.

>145 weird_O: Thanks Bill. That's more or less the angle I'm interested in. The UK's ban of horticultural peat is a move to protect their peatlands, which I am totally in favor of and wish other countries would take similar action. I'd like to know more about "how we got here," and about peat's role in our ecosystems. Thanks for bringing this book to my attention.

Happy Friday, Bill. I also enjoyed Fen, Bog & Swamp. Glad you got to it. She is one of those special writers who excel at both fiction and NF. I just started my reread of East of Eden. Always nice to delve into some Steinbeck.

Gotta say, Friday was a pretty good day for me. Not only in mowing terms, but also in reading terms. The mowing isn't done, but only a few patches that I want to mow remain. I'll get to them Monday.

I'm still massaging the borders of patches I'm not going to mow any more, but I do want to cut back (heh) and allow what's growing to grow. When we first moved to the township (in 1975), property owners were required to mow twice annually. Even in 1987-8, when we bought a spacey building lot (where I now live), we had to get a farmer to mow it. I don't know when that requirement disappeared, but as a practical matter it has. Over the years, I've read a few articles about "having a meadow" and I acquired a book called Noah's Garden: Restoring the Ecology of Our Own Backyards by Sara B. Stein, with the notion that "having that meadow" was going to be IT! But reading Stein's book—OMG!!—"having a meadow" was a scorched earth process. Douse the site with weedkiller, plow the ground, prep the seedbed, then sow a custom seed blend with grasses, wildflowers, and such. Then be vigilant, patrolling for weedlets, yahda yahda yahda. As Chuck Berry sang, "Ahhh, too much monkey business."

Last summer I just left a patch grow. To me it looks good. I like the colors. I don't miss riding back and forth, back and forth. The neighbor planted evergreens on the property line, so from their house, they can't see my weedlot. A narrow strip of trees, most of them weedy things, marks the edge of a steep cut bordering a township road. Deer cross the road, hop to the trees, and check out the unmowed hillside. They don't stay long. This year I am letting a second patch go, one that's bordered by a board fence and by tall evergreens we planted even before we built our house.

So there it is.

Oh, and don't forget the reading. I polished off In Review, a cut-and-paste job that briefly summarizes Eisenhower's career, drawn from four chunksters Eisenhower wrote and published. Pretty dull. I also finished a drawn out read of Fables of Aesop. Read a few fables a day for about a month. Sorry, but awfully goofy.

I'm trying to persuade my husband to let the 4 foot wide strip behind our house go to ferns and whatevers. He mows about a third of the width of the buffer between our house and our neighbor's driveway back there. The rest is plantings next to our foundation (most of which will be replaced by a concrete pad when a generator gets installed in the fall) and some forsythia, lilacs and a small maple tree surrounded by ferns along the property line. What he mows isn't even grass...just weedy stuff, but he hates to see it "ragged". I think it would fill in nicely if left to nature. Certainly not in the "meadow" class, however.

I say "restoring ecology" and "weed-killer" do not belong in the same plan.

We had a local meadow expert come out and walk our property. Preparing the area is important to eliminate invasive weeds that would out-compete the desirable native grasses & wildflowers. But there are alternatives to dousing it with weed-killer, namely "smothering" with black plastic or similar. The technique is described in this a useful guide from the New Hampshire Cooperative Extension:
Establishing a Wildflower Meadow from Seed

Still, creating a meadow takes time: the above guide says "Successfully establishing a meadow from seed is a three-year process, with the first year devoted to good site preparation." We found this rather daunting and decided to just let it go, with occasional mowing to maintain a path.

Hi Bill! Long time no visit.

>83 quondame: Fantasy and Sci Fi are not my go-to genres anyway, Susan, and so the difference you identify between what I consider AI and what you consider AI don’t change my mind about wanting to read it. Be of good cheer, though, I have more than enough books to keep me happy for decades.

>97 weird_O: Yay for the trifecta. Lovely pics.

>105 weird_O: I already had The Unsuspected on my shelves – I love Charlotte Armstrong. I just bought The Bigger They Come, having gotten rid of all my Lam/Cool paperbacks in 1991, and read The Chinese Orange Mystery when I was a teen. Excellent score, by the way. Congrats.

Skippety-skip-skip

Lots of good books read, fun stuff about your meadow.

Keep on keepin’ on…

>149 weird_O: In place of weedkiller, we have covered a lot of ground with blankets,

then, when drought stops and high energy or hired hands join forces, we will dig the ground,
add sand (hard clay here) and new soil - water and plant...and weed...

Hard work, but no-mow is better for all the disappearing pollinators.

Ferns can be wildly invasive!

Book sale! I think I'll go. See what's what.

I be keepin' on. Read The Rubber Band by Rex Stout. I will see what follows me home from the sale before settling on the next read. As always, a select number of books are messing with me from the new bookcase.

Happy hunting, Bill. Was The Rubber Band a good one? I've never read it.

Just a coincidence, but still... This is the date, back in 2014, that Thomas Berger died. Berger authored Little Big Man, perhaps more famous for the cinema than the novel. The coincidence? I bought a copy of the book today at a Goodwill store. Nice, clean hardcover. British edition. Eyre & Spottiswoode.

Pretty good day (if you gloss over the rough spots).

Hiya, Bill. Good to see that a new James McBride book is coming out. I liked a lot both Color of Water and Deacon King kong.

Congrats on landing a nice copy of Little Big Man. I still haven’t read that one or seen the movie.

Congrats also on having such a good reading year.

        Oooooo. Mister Bill. 

Oooooo. What week! Birthday came and went, and it was pretty good, thanks to a mid-day downpour. (The restaurant, usually busy and jumpin', was practically deserted, so we could have conversation without the "What? What did you say? What did she say?" 'Twas lovely.) Later in the week, there were multiple shopping opportunities. (Book shopping, of course.) Collection expanding. And despite the temperature, no meltdown.

The mercantile pageantry started mid-week with the Bethlehem Library book sale. Though it seemed mediocre, I did drop some capital tomes in my bag. Thursday I shopped at a B&N store that's being closed for a complete overhaul. The place was being emptied of merchandise via a 50% discount on practically everything, and the shelves were mostly empty. (Yet I did manage to find a few books to buy.) A Panera stop for a couple of bear claws placed me across the lot from a Goodwill emporium, and, well, a few more books.

Yes, yes. I will posts lists.

             

>150 laytonwoman3rd:, >151 lauralkeet:, >153 m.belljackson: Unmowed yards, just growing wild. A real stress reliever in this summer of climate collapse. Best thing we can do is sit quietly and read a book. Regretfully, I will have to motor around the yard to knock down the grass to a decent lawn-grass height. Meadow? I just won't call my unmowed patches "meadows."

>155 laytonwoman3rd: The Rubber Band was good, Linda. Published in 1936, it's pretty early on for Nero and Archie. In fact, it's the third in the long, long series. The genesis of the evil-doing is a couple of decades in the past, and having the characters appear in NYC, and just by dumb luck... But enough of that. I was struck by the amount of beer Wolfe drank.

>157 jnwelch: Hello, Joe.

I, too, hit the used book stores this week and acquired many more books than I should have. Both stores were Friends of a library used bookstores so I spent very little money and got lots of books.

Happy Belated Birthday, Bill. I hope you are doing well. How are those books treating you? I just finished my reread of East of Eden and it was very satisfying. I will have to look for that EOE diary that Steinbeck kept. I am sure it is fascinating.

>159 weird_O: Glad to hear that B&N has the resources to remodel. We were treated to the news that a new B&N is opening on the upper east side this year, in an old Duane Reade storefront. We've been afraid that the flagship store, a few blocks from us, might close, but it looks like they are reviving.

>160 weird_O: I haven't spent time with Archie and Mr. Wolfe in a long time, so I think I need to go hang out in the brownstone for a while soonish. I devoured those stories in my teens and twenties, and I thought Maury Chaykin nailed the character in the early 21st century TV series.

Books acquired at the library sale:

The Golden House, Salmon Rushdie (pbk)
Shaker Style, John S. Bowman (hc, oversize)
Peeling the Onion, Gunter Grass (hc)
Philip Roth: The Biography, Blake Bailey (hc)
The Call of the Toad, Gunter Grass (pbk)
The Widening Stain, W. Bolingbroke Johnson (pbk)
Einstein's Dreams: A Novel, Alan Lightman (hc)
I Am Legend, Richard Matheson (pbk)
The Last Report on the Miracles of Little No Horse, Louise Erdrich (hc)
Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey, compiled and edited by Karen Wilkin (hc)
The Man Who Died Twice, Richard Osman (hc)
The Maid: A Novel, Nita Prose (hc)
The Yellow Birds, Kevin Powers (hc)

New books acquired at Barnes & Noble (50% off, remember):

Run: Book One, John Lewis (hc)
The Big Book of Espionage, Otto Penzler (pbk)
Like a Rolling Stone, Jann Wenner (pbk)
The Netanyahus: An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family, Joshua Cohen (pbk)
The Feral Detective, Jonathan Lethen (pbk)
Foster, Claire Keegan (hc)

Used books acquired from Goodwill:

The Way Things Work, David Macaulay (hc)
Louis Comfort Tiffany, Jacob Baal-Teshuva (hc)
Little Big Man, Thomas Berger (hc)
The House in the Cerulean Sea, T J Klune (hc)
The Sentence, Louise Erdrich (pbk)
The Witches, Roald Dahl (pbk)
Giovanni's Room, James Baldwin (pbk)
Seeing, Jose Saramago (pbk)

I am curious - though not curious enough to spend the money- about The Netanyahus. I absolutely despise the current dictator in chief of Israel but his late brother Yonatan was the hero of the Entebbe rescue of hostages from the Uganda airport back in the late 1970s. He died for his efforts. My best friend and her husband were among those hostages. It seems Yoni was a very different type of person that his bloated trump of a brother and all we are left with are the what-ifs that are inevitable when one of the good ones dies too soon.

Let me know if it's worth requesting it from the library.

Life is weird, ya know? Yesterday I took out after some groceries, and upon my return, I discovered a book lurking under the passenger seat. Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? by Lorrie Moore. Oh yeah, I do remember tossing it in my bag at Goodwill. But I didn't miss it when I got home. Something to add to the list.



I'm reading three books in a rotation, so I'll probably finish them all the same day.

 A Book of Days, Patti Smith

A photo diary with a single image for each day, every day, with a sentence or two identifying the image or expressing a mood. Some images prompt a blank "Oh, uh-huh," while others trigger a switch to Google to identify a person or location. Some days the image or comment is compelling, other days, well...meh. But contemplative, on the whole. Each day I've been paging through one month. I'm at August 1; I'll be done this week.

The Netanyahus, Joshua Cohen 

A Pulitzer winner in 2022, a novel I'd never heard of, with a Bibi Netanyahu death head drifting spookily . Turns out—so far—to be a claustrophobic scheme to shift the burden of a mediocre Israeli scholar to...uh...someone else. (Dipping into the first five reviews posted on the book page, I've cribbed enough to see—sort of—where it is going. It's going to be interesting.)

 Ascending Peculiarity, Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey

Months ago, Richard Derus recommended I read Ascending Peculiarity to figure out Edward Gorey. On Wednesday at a book sale, I raised my eyes from a tabletop strewn with arty books and saw The Man looking…not at me, exactly, but maybe at my mostly empty L. L. Bean tote. Pick me up, into the tote, take me home. I did, I did, I did. I am reading the collection of interviews and I am having a swell time.

>167 weird_O:- It's a novel? I thought it was a bio. Ha! Still awaiting your final review

>167 weird_O: I got that as a surprise Christmas gift for my husband. I like to have something for him that's not straight off his Amazon wish list.

>161 benitastrnad: One thing leads to another, eh Benita? The library sale was fixed in time; it was go then or wait until September for the next. Then my usual book-sale partner, as she begged off, pointed out the B&N sale, and that made me prey to Goodwill, just a few blocks away (and kinda on the way home). Ohh, I got a lot of excuses. It is always fabulous to get top-drawer reads for not a lot of money.

>162 msf59: Help me, Mark. These books are ganging up on me. Why just yesterday, a book was hiding under the car seat and attacked me when I unloaded a bag of groceries. Lorrie Moore. Bit down hard and wouldn't let go. Thank goodness Steinbeck is a Nobelist and wouldn't stoop to such tactics.

>163 ffortsa: Someone told me, I don't know who it was, but somebody...said the CEO of B & N was touting the response to changes in store layouts and sales schemes, prompting renovations and expansions.

>164 laytonwoman3rd: I was struck belatedly by Stout's having established most of the series characters, settings, and habits in only the third book in the series. One obvious departure was Wolfe's beer consumption.

>168 jessibud2: Yeeessss, a novel. But the Netanyahu family is Bibi father's. Apparently, much (most?) of the plot is taken from life, with some niggling adjustments in some of the characters and so on. I'm near the end and just may finish it today. I understand the author has an addendum called "Credits and Extra Credit" that explains what he was thinking.

What the...? I added a reply to Susan's comment to >171 weird_O: and it vanished when to clicked on "Post Message." The moment's gone, sadly.

So which of the three books did you get your husband for Christmas, Susan?

>172 weird_O: Ascending Peculiarity. He loved getting it, but I don't know that he's read it.

>173 quondame: Ahhh. Good gift.

Fear not, my fellow book likers. I was simply on an out of body experience. Back now, though that may not be obvious.

I am currently shuffling amongst The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell, Dubliners by James Joyce, Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman, and Our Woman in Moscow by Beatriz Williams. To add one more book or two more books to my August reads list, I'll have to focus on Dubliners and/or Einstein.

I want to launch a new thread to end the month.

Here's a fun article by one of WaPo's book critics, Michael Dirda, headed Rules for Reading.

>175 weird_O: Dirda is definitely a fussy-pants.

re the time gap, everything ok with you?

Deaths o' the day: Allen Haring, 85, father of Keith Haring, and Paul Reubens, 70, a.k.a. Pee-Wee Herman. *sad trombones*

>175 weird_O: Hi Bill,
In July, I promised myself to stop lurking on so many threads and write replies when I was especially pleased to discover a title that intrigued me or that I read something posted with a link.

I read Michael Dirda's Rules today. There were only a few points that I can claim to do as he described, or thoughts that resonate. However, I am compelled to give a shout out for this much-needed sentiment:

Leave old books as they are
Any bowdlerization, “sensitivity editing” or rewriting of older literature is absolutely wrongheaded. Books aren’t something one approves or disapproves of; they are to be understood, interpreted, learned from, shocked by, argued with and enjoyed.

Moreover, the evolution of literature and the other arts, their constant renewal over the centuries, has always been fuelled by what is now censoriously labelled “cultural appropriation” but which is more properly described as “influence,” “inspiration” or “homage.” Poets, painters, novelists and other artists all borrow, distort and transform. That’s their job; that’s what they do.

"Fear not, my fellow book likers. I was simply on an out of body experience. Back now, though that may not be obvious."

^Well, I am glad to see this post. I just came by to check on my favorite Weirdo. I hope you are back in body and getting plenty of reading in. We miss you.

>179 msf59: ^^^ what Mark said

>178 SandyAMcPherson: "Books aren’t something one approves or disapproves of; they are to be understood, interpreted, learned from, shocked by, argued with and enjoyed." Amen to that.

       

>182 weird_O: Bill, no image there, just a big minus sign on grey.

Hope you are okay and your account is valid?

>182 weird_O: big blank box, Bill. Sorry I can't see what you posted.

>182 weird_O: - I can see it. I think it's wishful thinking, my friend... ;-)

>185 jessibud2: "...wishful thinking..." Well of course it is, Shelley. The guy's on notice from Judge Tanya Chutkan that she could respond to his failure to restrain himself by moving up the trial date. Maybe his own lawyers will restraint him. Hmmm?

>183 SandyAMcPherson: >184 ffortsa: Put the image in my Junk Drawer, so I believe you'll see it. Sorry.

Thanks, Bill. Wishful thinking indeed, but for his own sake he does need to shut up. That might not please his coterie, of course.

Hi Bill. Glad to see you posting again. In this group, folks notice when our comrades are absent for what seems like a prolonged time.

And thanks, >186 weird_O:, see the image and say that's the least of restraints for *him*.

Dropping in to day hello! Hope all is well with you :)

>187 ffortsa:, >188 SandyAMcPherson: I'm okay with wishful thinking. The Georgia indictments unsealed overnight just feed my wishful thinking. Getting more of the underlings sucked into the indictment pool is quite grand. Thanks to you both for looking in. ("Hey, Bill. You in there? Everything okay?" "Yeah, yeah. Okay, but moving slowly.")

>189 figsfromthistle: Hi, Anita. Another visitor! Come back soon.

>182 weird_O: I would just LOVE to see Trump in jail, but I'm afraid that will never happen, though I confess I have not kept up too well with Trump news at the moment. I hope you are getting some good reading in, but summer time is sometimes a busy time for reading with family, good weather etc. Thanks for the good wishes re our 40 th anniversary.

Finished the new McBride tome. Epic. I really really enjoyed it. Do read it and see for yourself.

>192 weird_O: Glad to hear this---I got my copy the day of release, but it has to get in line behind a couple other things.

I've got the new McBride on my library list, Bill. Glad it was such a good read for you. It's always fun to read about places we are familar with...

It's a good read, Linda & Katie. I even learned about rail service in Pottstown (I was misinformed and had to dismiss what I've always KNOWN).

Hello there! Popping in to say Hi! and >182 weird_O: If only!!!

Just stopping by to say Hi! Oh, wait. This is MY thread, isn't it? Should be doing more than "stopping by," ain't? Well...welcome, Bill.

A lovely weekend it has been. Sunny, but not too hot. I've got big plans to truck my hoard of gently used and now comingled recyclables to Waste Management.

Reading-wise, I finished The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. After thinking about it a couple of days, I've awarded it my equivalent of 5 stars. (I should reassess my ratings for the year so far.) I also completed another collection of Gary Larson cartoons. I was shopping at an independent thrift store, spotted it and said to myself, "I know what I'm having for dessert!" Oooooh, sweetness.) A second little book I finished this morning, Einstein's Dreams. I'll be venturing (with considerable trepidation) into At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien this evening.

As I wrote a couple of nights ago, it did venture into At Swim-Two-Birds. I didn't get too far. Just the introduction, by William Gass, was fairly baffling. The first chapter...well, put it this way, it was like dropping into the story on the third or fifth page. "Wait! What? What did I miss?" Well, didn't THAT give me pause. So yes, it's returned to the bench, but not sent to the showers.

Turning to The Great Wall of TBR and plucked Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann. The Touchstone sez:

New York City in the 1970s. A radical young Irish monk struggles with his own demons as he lives among the prostitutes in the middle of the burning Bronx. A group of mothers gather in a Park Avenue apartment to mourn their sons who died in Vietnam, only to discover just how much divides them even in …

The book cover itself (as well as 4 pages inside) are chock-a-block with encomiums. "A blockbuster groundbreaking heartbreaking symphony of a novel." "An act of pure bravado" "Stunning...an elegiac glimpse of hope." Swept away, I read...about 30 pages. Mesmerized, I stood and firmly directed this one to the bench. Nothing objectionable about it, just not the right for this time.

Isn't this how we select a book?

My next candidate was Adam Hochschild's The Unquiet Ghost: Russians Remember Stalin. I think this is the one.

Happy Wednesday, Bill. I also just finished The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store and it just missed being a 5-star read for me but will be one of the best books I have read this year. Let the Great World Spin was incredible. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. He is a terrific writer.

Ha! Finished another book. Reading it, of course, not writing it.

Hey, Bill. Are you traveling? Have I lost your new thread?

I was wondering the same thing. Where are you Bill?

WE MISS YOU, BILL!! Hope you are not stuck in another slump!!

Stopping by to say hi , Bill , and hoping all is well.

Just another hi! Stay weird!

Bill, if you are under a bookshelf somewhere, send out a signal, a bookmark, something....

       

Awww... Thanks all. But who dropped off that cherry bomb? That'll stir things up.

>208 weird_O: Superbly answered! :)

Breadcrumbs.

>210 laytonwoman3rd: Or is he??